Joan Frank

Joan Frank's second story collection, In Envy Country, won the 2010 Richard Sullivan Prize in Fiction and has been nominated for a 2011 STORY Prize. Order it directly from the University of Notre Dame Press (see order link at lower left), or from your favorite bookstore.

Joan was born to New Yorkers in Phoenix, Arizona, and has lived in Hawaii, West Africa, Paris, and San Francisco. She studied with author Thaisa Frank (no relation) at the University of California in Berkeley, CA, and holds an MFA in creative fiction from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC.

Joan is a MacDowell- and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellow, a Pushcart Prize- and Bread Loaf Fellow nominee, winner of the Dana Award, Michigan Literary Fiction Award, Iowa Writing Award, and Emrys Fiction Award. She is the recipient of grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, a two-time finalist for the Northern California Book Award in Fiction, and a San Francisco Library Literary Laureate. She has taught creative writing at San Francisco State University and in private consultation.

Joan also reviews literary fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle Book Review. She lives in Northern California.

In Envy Country is Joan's fourth work of fiction.

The Boston Globe says: "[B]itingly ironic, provocative scenes of contemporary life, so complete that they will satisfy readers who typically grab 400-page novels. . . . powerfully connected in content and tone . . . through an observing narrator who ponders the complexities of life around her. The art of these stories is in their telling . . . Frank hits precisely the right note. Often, the stories are funny . . . perceptive . . . wise."

The San Francisco Chronicle says: "Offers the pleasures of a gossipy chat with an astute and clever friend. . . dark wit, a playful way with language and imagery . . . shrewd and, yes, frank . . . . [Frank's] sharp portraits and original way with words make these stories surprising and rewarding." - Elizabeth Fishel

Publishers Weekly says: "The uneasy balance of power between male and female binds this sharp collection . . . Frank works every aspect of these stories with relentless energy, and readers will be sure to pay attention."

ForeWord Magazine: "The author's precise and artful prose is there to perform a duty; it's a steadfast craft for a cast of wildly mottled characters. . . . These nine stories, on their face about what is observed, in close-up reveal that what is left undetected, undone, and unimagined is what resonates."